Parallels
by The Mome Raths Outgrabe
Summary: When Steve needs to get out of the tower he goes to get a burger and overhears an argument.


**Disclaimer: I don't own Avengers.**

 **Thanks so much to my beta Krystal Lazuli**

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Sometimes things got heated in the Avengers Tower. It usually had something to do with Tony. Sometimes Tony stepped over the line, other times he was just plain obnoxious. Steve found that he had to take a walk or else do something that he might regret later. Often he would walk several blocks before he felt ready to go back.

This time he walked a little longer and saw some familiar golden arches. Familiar, because it was a place he had visited often. Mcdonald's had opened in 1955 and yet Tony still seemed to think that they had existed in his age. Although he suspected Tony knew that it wasn't true and just said so because he thought it was funny or something.

Steve made his way thru the doors and got in line. It was fairly busy as it was lunch hour in the bustling city of New York. Steve quickly decided what he wanted, but it didn't matter much as the line was going to take him at several minutes to get through.

Steve found his thoughts slowly wandering away, only to be brought back abruptly by the sound of arguing. Steve focused on where the sound was coming from and discovered the source to be two young boys. The older boy, a blond-haired child, couldn't have been much older than 7, and the younger boy, who had darker hair, was probably around 5. The two of them were fighting over a crown. It was one of those cheap looking crowns that probably had come as a part of a happy meal. He had been to Mcdonald's enough times now to know what a happy meal was even though he had never gotten one before. The older boy jerked on it attempting to get the younger child to release it. The younger boy did the same, resulting in the both of them pulling on it, but neither being able to pull it away from the other.

"It's mine Luke, let it go," the older boy cried. The younger boy didn't listen.

"I just want to play with it once before you break it," Luke said pouting as he continued to pull on it. "You break everything."

"But it's mine," The older boy said loudly. The father looked up from his cell phone at that comment and then looked around the room for a moment, his cheeks reddening in what looked like a combination of anger and embarrassment due to all the people looking at him. Steve tried to give him a kind smile, but he looked back down at his children before he saw the look of encouragement. The father looked sternly down at the younger one.

"Luke, that is Theodor's toy,"

"But he's gonna break it, I just want one turn," Luke said stubbornly not giving it up.

"No Luke," the boy's father said sharply. "Give Theodor back his crown!" the father said sharply. The smaller boy reluctantly gave the plastic crown back to his brother but continued to glare at his father and brother. For a few minutes, the smaller boy glowered and most of the other people turned their attention back to their own lives, but Steve kept watching the small family. Theodor looked between the crown and his brother sadly like he hadn't meant for his father to yell at his brother to get his crown back. The younger boy didn't seem to notice this and kept glaring at his older brother. Theodor put down the crown and ate some of his hamburger and fries.

Steve blinked as he realized that he had made it to the front of the line. He relayed his order to the smiling person, accepted his receipt, and went to the side to wait as there were no available tables at the moment.

Steve found his gaze wandering back to the table and did as double-take as he saw the smaller boy rummaging through his father's bag. Luke pulled out a toy in the shape of the earth. It was made of something else though and while the pieces themselves didn't look fragile, the connection between each piece did. He might have warned them, but he noticed that the older boy had seen his younger brother.

"Luke that's mine, it took 3 hours to build that!" Theodor cried looking worried at his earth toy. The little boy raised it over his head, clearly threatening to smash it.

"Luke put that down!" Theodor cried louder his eyes pleading with his brother not to break his fragile toy. The smaller boy was apparently not swayed by his brother's pleading eyes and angrily threw the fragile toy onto the ground. Theodor dove for it and barely caught the toy in his hands. Theodor looked at his brother, angry but also sad at what his brother had tried to do. Luke looked glared angrily back at him.

"You're going into time out!" his father said sharply and grabbed the smaller boy and pulled him into his arms.

"Theodore, throw away our stuff and meet us outside," he said slinging his bag over the shoulder that Luke wasn't on, then striding out of the restaurant with the youngest child. The child glared at the world from his father's shoulder. Right before the two disappeared through the doorway he could see tears in the younger child's eyes. Steve watched as the older child put his toy on the table then gathered up all of the uneaten food and discarded wrappers onto a tray, the look of anger and sadness still clearly showing on his face.

"I can't believe he would do that. He knew how much work I put into it," he heard the child say as he threw away the wrappers and put the empty plastic tray on top. He picked up his toy from the table and held it close to him as he followed his father and brother out to the parking lot.

Steve blinked as his number was called. He picked up his food and there was thankfully an empty table for him to sit at. Steve soon forgot about the fighting boys as he started to eat his meal.

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 **Please let** **me know what you think**


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